The man had stated that he had received a message through WhatsApp regarding a proposal for investment on July 1 and within the next ten days is/was involved in an investment of 4 crore in the same, allured by the high percentage of interest projected by the spammers.
Hyderabad: What possibly might be the biggest cyber financial fraud by an individual, as per records filed with Telangana’s Cyber Security Bureau, is a 75-year-old man who has been defrauded of Rs 13 crore. The victim had retired as a senior manager of a public sector unit to the state and continued to be busy as a lawyer.
As alleged, the man had received a message proposing an investment through WhatsApp on July 1, and within 10 days, he had invested 4 crore here, being mesmerized by the high returns as estimated by the fraudsters.
When his account reached 10 crore, he wished to withdraw them. Then he was informed of GST, CGST, conversion tax, foreign exchange tax, and what have you, and this poor man was forced to pay another 9 crores within 15 days to get his investment money and what he called “the returns” he had made.
For these investments, he had bond money working in mutual funds and other savings and remitted through his own account in the bank.
After some approximately 50 days of using the fake account, he came to know that he had been scammed. He could not do very much, but he lodged a complaint at the Telangana Cyber Security Bureau on Monday.
However, due to the delay in reporting the matter, there was a scant chance of revival. Out of the total 13 crore that went out of his bank, the police could retrieve only 20 lakh.
The money had been withdrawn through checks, ATM cards, and such from numerous accounts located throughout Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Kerala.2 crore were pulled out from a distant place like Dubai.
Police have started interrogating a couple of people in Hyderabad, which is one of the places from where some amount was withdrawn.
